MAINE PUBLIC • February 6, 2023
After a two-year hiatus, members of the U.S. and Canadian lobster fisheries met in Portland over the weekend to discuss the challenges facing their industry. Top of mind is how the industry will spend the next six years free of new federal regulations designed to protect endangered right whales. American lobstermen say the pause will give them time to learn more about the movement of the right whales, and install more acoustic devices to track them. Still, the task of securing better data about the whales and new fishing techniques is a challenging one, said Rick Wahle, director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine.